The New NAFTA-Regional Union By Another Name

When President elect Donald J Trump promised to tear up NAFTA it hit the sweet note with supporters who believed this meant better job prospects for locals and once sworn into office he raised tariff rates on certain imports like steel to protect the interests of American workers.

As it happened NAFTA wasn’t torn up but revised in favor of a new regional-based trade alliance in keeping with global trends.

This new NAFTA known as the United States- Mexico- Canada Agreement (USMCA) came into effect on 30 September 2018- yet still has to be ratified by Congress- is basically the old one with a few cosmetic changes.

Maybe this is more than just a trade deal but a route to something bigger- for instance the economic slash political Union of the three countries.

The road to the European Union kicked off with the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) committed to the goals of a common market and regional integration evolving over time into the huge interconnected entity we know today.

We know for example the first NAFTA was strongly backed by globalists and powerful multinationals with those opposed looked-on as the proverbial David in the fight against Goliath- a la Ross Pirow the independent U.S. politician cum businessman who ran for President on an anti- NAFTA ticket in the early nineties.

In an October 2 2018 tweet Richard Haas the current President of the Council of Foreign Relations said; if real Donald and the Congress are now prepared to embrace a pro-trade agreement it is all for the good.

He continued; Ideally U.S. participation in Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) by another name would be next, failing that a U.S. Japan Free Trade Agreement would be second best.

The recent announcement of the closure of General Motors has spoiled in part Trump’s high hopes for the revival of the American manufacturing industry with some sources even suggesting this was a political move to undermine his administration’s economic recovery programme.

We’re witnessing the politics playing out center stage right now in the epic struggle between the interests of nationhood versus that of globalization supposedly spearheaded by the flamboyant American President.

Been down This Road Before

During the time of the George Bush Administration intrepid CNN anchor Lou Dobbs stumbled on and exposed a secret plan to impose a North American Union on an unsuspecting public.

Those were the days good journalists took their job as public watchdog seriously without fear or favor.

Dobbs argued Bush intended to bypass Congress using the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America to merge the U.S. Canada and Mexico into an EU type model.

NAFTA as a trade cum investor agreement also facilitated the process giving foreign investors rights and privileges to promote the relocation of factories abroad- or in this case regionally as in Mexico.

The question now is the revised version –United States-Mexico- Canada agreement the back door to establish a North American Union?

Pointers in the New NAFTA

In an article titled; New NAFTA- Text of US-Mexico-Canada Agreement revealed by Christian Gomez the salient point’s made that people think the old NAFTA no longer exists but the only thing that has been done away with is the unpopular name.

The new Agreement not only retains the sovereignty threatening provisions of NAFTA 1 but strengthens and expands on it.

It has 34 chapters- 12 more than NAFTA- including that on labor, environment, anti-corruption, regulatory policy, competitiveness and Mexico’s exclusive ownership of its gasoline and natural gas resources- among others.

USMCA is a whopping 1,809 pages long- 1,572 for the treaty itself- compared to NAFTA’s 741 pages devoted to the treaty- with 214 pages for annexures and the remaining 23 for side letters.

The agreement has a sixteen year life span - with a six year option of review - after which it will either be terminated or renewed.

If one country withdraws the agreement still remains in effect for the other two.

The USMCA has to comply with the rules of international authorities like The World Trade Organization, the International Labor Organization, a plethora of UN conventions and the furtherance of sustainable development the objective in all climate change agreements.

But most of all the USMCA establishes a new governing international bureaucracy in the form of a Free Trade Commission- a regional body overseeing lower regional committees.

And just like the TPP Commission it can make changes without the consent of Congress- in fact it undermines Congress Constitutional Article 1 section 8- overriding its power to regulate trade with foreign nations like Mexico and Canada and to impose tariffs should the need arise- as in the case of national security.

The New Face of Globalization

Bloomberg opines that is spite of talk that globalization’s in retreat it just has a new face- it’s gone regional.

Bloomberg contributor Daniel Moss then credits South Korea’s President with planting the seeds of a Northeast Asian version of the European Union with his proposed rail system linking the Korea’s, China, Japan, Mongolia and Russia.

Indeed the South Korean President- Moon Jae-in- referenced the European Coal and Steel Community at a Council of Foreign Relations meeting- noting how it evolved into the EU decades later- the idea no doubt being start small but dream big.

Other regional efforts in the pipeline are- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations- the African Union and USMCA- although the African Union has yet to be ratified by Nigeria and South Africa.

Can Nationalism and Globalization Co-exist?

It goes without saying that nationalism and globalization are incompatible worldviews where loyalty to the one at is at odds with the interests of the other.

Well that’s the theory- but the issue’s not always so black and white- there are shades of gray in between.

Nationalists can be persuaded to support global institutions and by extension globalization when politicians exploit their hopes and fears to their own advantage.

On the hope side are better job prospects arising out of a strong commitment by leaders to a better trade deal to benefit the country with the fear being with the issue of security because of uncontrolled mass migration or global terrorism.

Which begs the question- how would a North American Union affect the building of Trump’s promised border wall between Mexico and the U.S. to keep out illegals?

Answer- it’ll scupper the whole thing as any decided-on security wall will serve as a barrier to Central American illegals only and will be constructed from the Mexican farthest southern border side as boundaries between the three countries fall away in a North American Union model.

Last of all there’s just good old fashioned unreserved trust in one’s party leader.